Listening Exercises A2 – A news story

1 a   2 c   3 e   4 b   5 d   6 f

heatwave, flood, cyclone

a   work

b   health

c   died

d   common

e   115

f   100

g   Floods

h   cyclones

i   pollution

Transcript

Global warming has made the news again and it’s all because of this hot weather we’re having. Britain is experiencing a heat wave this summer and it’s causing numerous problems. It’s difficult to work. It’s difficult to sleep. And it’s causing health problems too. It’s not a little problem. It’s serious. 100 people have died in the last few months. The weather is changing. Temperatures above 30 degrees are becoming more common. But it’s not just here that temperatures are rising. The rest of Europe is experiencing the hottest summer in 115 years. The weather is getting warmer everywhere and in Antarctica, the ice is melting. Experts say temperatures around the world are rising and we can expect them to continue to rise by about five degrees in the next 100 years. The earth is getting hotter.

And there are other climate changes happening around the world. We’ve heard about the floods in India and the fires in the United States. In the South Pacific, there were more cyclones this year than last year. And they’re getting bigger.

So what’s causing all this? Are these changes due to global warming? Are we causing these problems? Some experts say temperatures are rising because we are causing too much pollution. Others say it is part of a natural cycle and we aren’t doing anything to cause it. Either way, what can we do about it? These are the topics we’ll be discussing on the programme today.

a   Speaker 1

b   Speaker 2 and 3

c   Speaker 1

d   Speaker 1 and 3

a   less ice in the Arctic.

b   Possible answers:

     not use aeroplanes as often

     use public transport more often

     heat our houses with solar energy

Transcript

(Speaker 2 = Indian; Speaker 3 = American)

Speaker 1:

The trouble with global warming er … everybody thinks any change in the weather is the result of global warming. Occasionally they say, well, yes last year in America they had lots and lots of hurricanes and that’s due to global warming. But every 30 years or so they get a lot of hurricanes and it isn’t necessarily because of global warming. But the fact there is less ice in the Arctic, that’s almost certainly due to global warming. So, I’m not convinced that all our weather problems are because of global warming.

Speaker 2:

Well um global warming, well yeah some people say there is global warming and some say there isn’t. I’m not an expert so I don’t really know but er, I’ve um … but I think that we have created a lot of pollution and I think probably … yeah um we probably need to cause less pollution, like not use aeroplanes as often, in order to stop global warming.

Speaker 3:

It seems to me that the weather’s changing. Every summer seems to be a bit hotter and we are definitely having more problems with the weather around the world. Um, lots more cyclones and you hear about floods and all sorts of terrible things happening. Yeah I think that’s because of global warming. In my opinion, we can do something about it, um, if we try to clean up the environment a bit more, maybe … use public transport more often … and heat our houses with solar energy and that kind of thing. I guess that will make a difference.